Collide of Cultures

We have a new weapon in our teaching collection! The Aztec war club is a weapon that would have been brought up by the Spanish on their entrada into New Mexico. The war club is basically a baseball bat with obsidian blades inserted into the sides, which made for an incredibly deadly and effective weapon. Fragments of the obsidian blades were found at the local Santiago Pueblo, which was the pueblo that was commandeered by Coronado. Obsidian can be specifically pinpointed to the location of the source rock, so chemical tests can confirm the area of origin.

Stop by our Visitor Center to experience what it would have been like to handle these historical weapons.